Damage to the fabric of the heart is one of the commonest causes of human morbidity and mortality. The most usual mode of treatment for patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction is simply the administration of thrombolytic agents. However, in reperfusion injury, although the tissue damage is dependent on the duration of anoxia, the damage is believed to be exacerbated by the sudden perfusion of oxygen leading to the generation of various free radical species. Although many studies have implicated the involvement of free radical species in the cellular damage observed in myocardial reperfusion injury as well as reperfusion injury to other tissues, their nature, source and location nevertheless remain controversial.
Investigations on isolated heart preparations with coronary artery ligation have shown that the incorporation of hydroxyl radical scavengers and desferrioxamine prior to reperfusion decreases the incidence of heart arrhythmias and other markers of radical-mediated damage on reperfusion, such work being discussed by Rice-Evans et al, Free Rad. Res. Comm., 1989, 7, 49. The role of desferrioxamine in limiting myocardial ischaemic/reperfusion injury has also been confirmed by Reddy et al, Free Rad. Biol. Med., 1989, 7, 45, using experiments in dogs.